FOOTBALL WILL LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DAY

MBABANE – Football will live to see another day, but fans must get used to live-streaming games as their return to stadiums will not happen anytime soon.

The good news is that fears that the Eswatini Government will again ban football activities in the country have been allayed – at least for now. This follows that the country’s Deputy Prime Minister, Themba Masuku, excluded football when announcing revised COVID-19 response interventions in a press briefing yesterday at Cabinet offices in Mbabane. 

There were concerns from some in the football fraternity that government might effect a ban on local games even in the premier league following the huge surge in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and related deaths. 

devastating

The second wave of the virus has shown devastating effects as 139 deaths were recorded over this period and 4 120 new infections, creating panic among a lot of people. Football has not been spared from the effects of this virus as a number of positive cases involving players, officials and supporters of the game have been making news in recent days. 

There have been further concerns that local football authorities were not doing enough in terms of managing the situation surrounding the virus as there have been discrepancies on the testing of players, with the parties involved choosing to play the blame game while the risks of those involved in the game contracting the virus remain high.

Football followers would be happy to learn that government has seen it fit and safe to allow football to continue, meaning that the MTN Premier League games will resume as scheduled next weekend after a two-week break. 

gradually

There were hopes that the fans would, however, be allowed gradually back into stadiums as early as next month, given that this is a trend in most countries, but this has been dashed.  This is because the COVID-19 interventions announced by government yesterday also affect gatherings, which means fans will not be allowed back. Others affected are business and commerce, local and international travel and burials. 

PLE’ Chief Operations Officer (COO) Pat Vilakati reiterated that the league fixtures will resume as scheduled next weekend. It has been gathered that most of the local clubs are currently undergoing COVID-19 testing in readiness for the resumption of the games.

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